Lake Mead, NV — The drought that has parched much of the southwest may soon yield a mystery that has rested at the bottom of Nevada’s Lake Mead for nearly 70 years, a B-29 bomber that went down carrying a top-secret missile defense system that may have actually caused the crash.

B-29 in Lake Mead
Water levels are at their lowest at Nevada’s Lake Mead leading the National Park Sevice to allow permits for recreational diving at the site of a downed B-29 bomber. (National Park Service)

The B-29 bomber, also known as the “Superfortress” and the same model as the storied Enola Gay and Bockscar, the planes that dropped atomic bombs on Japan, crashed in 1948 as it flew over the giant lake testing a sun-powered missile guidance system. For decades, it lay at a depth of 300 feet in the man-made lake that was formed by construction of the Hoover Dam. But the drought has lowered water levels to the point where the plane is just 110 feet down, well within the range of recreational divers.

“It would be amazing,” Curtis Snaper, of Sin City Scuba in nearby Las Vegas, told FoxNews.com. “There’s a lot of history there. The site would be right up there with any shipwreck for a diver.”

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Drought may soon yield B-29 Superfortress beneath Lake Mead

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